"Every year after the captured it they lost seats, and they made it worse by primarying away all their moderates."

They actually gained seats in 2002 (Madison Marye resigned and his Montgomery County seat became Jay O'Brien's seat--now George Barker's) and 2003 (Leslie Byrne's open seat became JMDD's seat--now Chap!'s)  It was 23-17, then 22-16. 

The first pickup was Herring winning the Mims open seat last year.

So, that's not terribly surprising.

KUDOS TO YOU ALL

All but Fairfax absentees in, Barker up by 1,700.

The Senate is ours.

I started voting in 1995, and this has been the best election night ever. It even feels better than when we took back Congress; maybe because back when I came to the state, in 2000, only those who smoke funny things would have predicted that this would happen in Virginia.  How do you put the dancing banana in an rk post?

Please return governing this state to something approaching sanity.

with one precinct outstanding.

Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II: 17,807
Janet S. Oleszek: 17,738

Precincts Reporting: 38 of 39 (97.43%)

On the other hand, combo of PWC and FX official returns show Barker 17,351, O'Brien 16376.  Higher totals than SBE.  Looks like three precincts in PWC still out; a couple in FX.

sitting at home hitting the refresh button over and over on the State election website?

Barker just lost some of his margin in the last undate 95.12% reporting

Barker up by more than 6% at 97% reporting is solid indeed.

Cooch-Oleszek sounds like it's in recount territory, which could leave that one a question mark for a while...

At least that question mark won't leave control of the Senate in the balance.

First your state party decides to have a convention, effectively shutting you out, then your wife loses her seat despite tons of your money being poured into the race.

Paul F. Nichols: 6,337
Faisal M. Gill: 5,842

Precincts Reporting: 16 of 16 (100%)

52 Republicans
44 Democrats
2 Independent
2 Seats Undeclared

The two undeclared races are

Poisson/Chapman
Donahue/Rust

0 of 0 Loudoun County precincts reporting

Same issue.  0 of 8 Precincts in Loudoun County reporting.

For Schulz/Vogel it's 0 of 16 precincts reporting.

Anyone know what is happening in Loudon that zero precincts are reporting?

According the APs count, Donahue is leading by 300 votes w/ 61% of precincts reporting (not sure which, however).

Donahue: 4,265
Rust:  3,956

Down 91 votes after counting absentees. She has not conceded, observers will be at the canvass in the morning. This margin is well within the recount provision, and is within in the margin for a state funded recount.

now 162 votes with 78% of precincts in.

Donahue: 7,306
Rust:  7,144

Do you have a link to AP?  They must have the numbers direct from Loudoun because the SBE still has nothing from Loudoun.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/elections/2007/results/general_loudoun.html

"We lost at least 4 seats in the House because people like our ideas."

House Speaker William J. Howell of Stafford said this morning that Republicans kept control of the lower chamber because of the GOP's focus on issues that mattered to Virginians.

"The true test of a strong majority is whether it can weather bad times as well as good. Tonight, our strong Republican majority in the House of Delegates endured despite a challenging political environment," Howell said in a statement.

Republicans took control of the House in the 1999 election. But their majority has gone from a high of 64 to 54.

http://virginiapolit...

People like Republican ideas so much they turned four (maybe more) Republicans out of office.

Just got back from  the party in McLean and it was very exciting  to have Govs. Kaine and Warner there to share in the good news about the Senate! Good riddance, JMDD!

Only folks that have seen Legally Blond, the Musical will get this, but I can't resist...

OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD YOU GUYS

This is why I get up at 4:30.

went home and went to sleep.  I'm beginning to lose hope that they will report results any time tonight.

83% in

Donahue: 7,423
Rust:  7,254

Margin: 169

I'm hearing unofficially that Donahue is up 100 votes with 1 precinct remaining. Donahue's webpage (www.jaydonahuefordelegate.com/) has already been updated (although the graphic is out of date).

And all of a sudden the SBE comes in with whack-a-mole showing Rust with a 700 vote victory, all precincts reporting.

According to the SBE, all precincts are reporting and Jay DOnahue has 5,627 votes. According to the AP 83% of precincts are reporting and Donahue has 7,423 votes.

In Senate District 27, Holtzman (R) beat Schultz (D) by roughly 760 votes. 

In that race, Donald C. Marro run as an Independent.

Mr. Marro received 2,133 votes (4.2%).

Since an Independent candidate usually pulls swing votes from the Democratic candidate I conducted a cursory review of Mr. Marro's political donations to see where his political loyalties really lie:

2/7/2004 $1,500  Wolf, Frank R

5/4/2004  $1,500  Wolf, Frank R

8/22/2006  $1,000  Wolf, Frank R

10/17/2000  $1,000  Wolf, Frank R

2/16/2007  $500  Wolf, Frank R

4/25/2005  $500  Wolf, Frank R

3/27/2006  $500  Wolf, Frank R

7/29/2003  $500  Wolf, Frank R

2/7/2004  $500  Wolf, Frank R

10/21/1996  $250  Republican National Cmte

12/28/2000  $500  National Republican Congressional Cmte

My guess would be he was a puppet only on the ballot to pull votes away from the Democratic candidate. 

If Mr. Marro had not been in that race, we may have won.